Brexit talks teeter on edge of collapse
U.K. decries ‘ideological approach’ by EU
The Brexit trade talks were at the point of collapse Friday after the U.K.’S chief negotiator said the EU’S “ideological approach” made it impossible to reach an agreement.
The chief negotiators for the two sides went public with their displeasure at the state of negotiations, raising the prospect Britain could walk out of talks in June and pursue a no-deal exit.
David Frost, the U.K.’S top Brexit official, said “very little progress” had been made in this week’s negotiations, saying we “very much need a change in EU approach.”
He called on Brussels to drop its demands for level playing field guarantees on tax, labour rights, state aid and the environment and status quo access to U.K. fishing waters under “existing conditions.”
Britain will next week publish its legal negotiating texts, including for the trade deal and separate Norway-style fishing agreement with annual catch limits, in an attempt to prove it is asking for nothing that is not normal in free-trade agreements.
Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator, had accused
Britain of not understanding the consequences of Brexit and of trying to cherry-pick access to the bloc’s Single Market.
He warned that the EU would never agree to a trade deal without level playing field guarantees or a “balanced” fisheries agreement.
There are six weeks, and one negotiating round, before the legally binding end of June deadline for any U.K. request to extend the transition period beyond the end of the year. The sides will meet to evaluate progress in June.
Downing Street insists an extension request will not be made, which, with both sides deadlocked, has raised fears the U.K. could leave the transition period without a deal and with the sides forced to trade on far less lucrative WTO terms.
“It is hard to understand why the EU insists on an ideological approach which makes it more difficult to reach a mutually beneficial agreement,” Frost said. “We very much need a change in EU approach.”
“The major obstacle to this is the EU’S insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the so-called ‘level playing field’ which would bind this country to EU law or standards,” he said. “As soon as the EU recognizes that we will not conclude an agreement on that basis, we will be able to make progress.”